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Author Topic: Wondering if what I did was ok - frame switching  (Read 1208 times)

Offline ziffabeek

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Wondering if what I did was ok - frame switching
« on: August 11, 2009, 02:18:40 pm »
Hello again,

I did my first bit of "managing" last week, and I wanted to see if I was headed in the right direction.  Maybe you guys can advise me?

First my set up.  I have 2 10-frame deep brood boxes with brood (really pretty brood if you ask me) in both boxes.  The bottom box only has comb drawn on 6 of the 10 frames,like this:  E E B B B B B B E E, with all the brood having a little crown of honey.  The top box looks really pretty.  It has really good looking brood in the middle frames topped with a little honey in the corners, with full honey on 1 and 2 (actually bound all together) and 9, and about 1/2 of frame 10.

I put a medium super on about 2 1/2 weeks ago, when I saw they had finally drawn out the last frame in the top box.  Last week I checked and they hadn't touched the mediums and that super had a bunch of adult SHB!  I freaked out.  There were probably about 10-20 beetles running around the frames.  I squished as many as I could and then took the super off.

I inspected the top box and it looked good.  Didn't see any beetles.  Saw that the last frame was getting honey in it.  Lot's of capped brood and some larva.  When I went into the bottom box, the 4 empty frames still hadn't been touched.  Hmmmm.

So here's what I did.  I took frames 9 and 10 from the top box, that had honey in them, and switched them with frames 1 & 10 from the bottom box, which are bare foundation.  I wanted to do 1 to 1 and 10 to 10, but as I said, frames 1 and 2 on the top are all  honey combed together, and I don't feel proficient enough to try and seperate them at this time.  

I've read that it is important to put the frames back in in the same order, so i'm worried about how I switched them.  But they weren't touching those bottom frames.  Was this ok to do to try and get them to spread out a little?  

Also, I don't have any comb to "start" the medium super.  What is a good way to get them to get up there and use it and guard it before the hive beetles take over?  I did not put the super back on.  I'm gonna freeze them and buy a trap before I do.  I'm worried because I've been hearing about August swarms, and crowded bees, and I know we usually have a small fall flow here in Georgia, and they are pretty full now.

Any comments and or suggestions are greatly appreciated and eagerly awaited.

Thanks again guys, for being here.  I don't know what I'd do with out you!

love,
ziffa

Offline harvey

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Re: Wondering if what I did was ok - frame switching
« Reply #1 on: August 11, 2009, 02:26:58 pm »
This is what I have learned here from reading not from experience as this is my first year housing bees.  When switching frames to get them to start drawing them put one honey on the outside, then the empty frame then brood.  If the empty is on the outside it might just stay empty.  If the empty is between two frames they are working they will work it also.  I think the biggest concern is not to disrupt the brood nest unless they are over crowded.   Sorry to hear about the beetles,  So far I have not seen any.  I am in the thumb area of Michigan.

Offline Scadsobees

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Re: Wondering if what I did was ok - frame switching
« Reply #2 on: August 11, 2009, 02:45:48 pm »
Yes, frame switching is fine.  And they don't have to go in any particular order.  I'd go a step further and say to put the empty foundation frames in the center of the brood boxes, they'll use it quicker there.

As far as getting them into the super...that can be hard, especially if you don't have a strong flow going on right now.  Just make sure that you are not using an excluder.

As for the SHB...they were all up in the super because the bees weren't letting them down below...and that is a good thing.  SHB is more serious in your southernly climate, so you may want to consider a beetle trap or some such thing.

Rick
Rick

Offline ziffabeek

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Re: Wondering if what I did was ok - frame switching
« Reply #3 on: August 12, 2009, 10:29:51 am »
Great - Thanks Scads!  I've already ordered the beetle traps and also an entrance reducer as I heard that helps too? 

I have cedar mulch under my hive, do you think if I water in a bunch of salt that would help kill beetle pupae?  I want to order nematodes too, but can't seem to find anybody who sells the right species.  Does anybody have any experience with them?

I hadn't thought about the bees keeping the beetles in the super.  They do seem like a strong clean hive. Im just worried about the conflict of needed to give them more room and giving the beetles room to proliferate :/. 

Thanks again for your comments.

love,
ziffa

 

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